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Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Republicans Blowup Public Education once and for all, for Freedom and Liberty!!!

The Joint Finance Committee literally ripped apart public education with a maze of big government regulations that hands taxpayer dollars over to parents, because they know what's best. Professional educators and researchers just got their pink slips.

"Eliminate the Course Options program that allows college courses to be taught in high schools." (Kids would get) "high school and college credit." This would have saved families lots of money, and now penalizes advanced students.

"Students with disabilities would be eligible to apply for vouchers for the first time under a separate program." Private standards are so lax, this plan simply invites deception and corruption for profit.

Constitutionally possible? "Prohibits the state superintendent from promoting the Common Core State Standards, and from adopting new academic standards created by the Common Core State Standards Initiative, though there are none in the works."

Zero ability to compare schools: "The proposal allocates money to find up to five alternative tests for schools to choose from."

Taxpayer money going out-of-state?To be honest, I don't even believe this one: "Allowing a student to attend a public school outside of the school district they live in, or outside of the state."

Right Wing-nut Testing is here...freedom and liberty f**k yea: "Requiring students to pass a civics test to graduate from high school."

Allowing the failed virtual charter model to flourish by not holding host district responsible: "Prohibiting test scores from students attending virtual charter schools from being included in school accountability reports for the schools’ host school district if more than half of the virtual charter students don’t live there."

Lowering teacher standards: "Allowing DPI to grant teaching licenses to individuals who wish to teach technical courses and have a set amount of work experience and teacher training."
This isn't the complete list either. Republicans also took aim at Wisconsin's biggest cities, setting up the installation of an un-elected schools czar who can turn public to private on a whim. Oh, and two of those cities are predominantly Democratic. Coincidence?

And after all this and the outcry from voters, republicans are now desperately trying to spin their way out of trouble for their over-the-top legislation:

A chorus of voices — from the state superintendent to teachers unions, school administrators and parents — claimed the Republican-led amendments result in a wholesale reshaping of education policy.Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon), the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, acknowledged the budget "doesn't make it easier to run a school district." Olsen said there wasn't enough money to fund property tax cuts that Walker promised and also fund the public education system."Something has to give and that's what gave," Olsen said Wednesday.